Some one tell Cled to read the previous comments or print a copy for him , just so he knows the opinions some have of his decision .
My opinion about having a meeting is , to have a meeting when people are not being distracted by the fact that the race meeting is happening now , but to have the A.G.M. when they have free time without a deadline to get it over and done with . This give members plenty of time to discuss issues and voice opinions as per usual at an A.G.M.

Is there a requirement that at least 30 days notice in writing is given to members of a meeting? And the notice required to set out when and where the meeting is to be held? The AGM is constitutionally required to be held in Feb, so notice of time and place by rights should have been issued to all members in Jan 2012?

Common sense prevailed and the AGM was postponed ,whether this is legal or not I do not know,but I do know that I had NO NOTICE of the revised meeting time. I guess it is no longer of interest to me as after this years experience I very much doubt I will be attending again. I have been to most meetings since the sport began. Have competed at the top level at many meetings and loved every minute of it, untill this year. IT IS NO LONGER FUN. After doing all the required items mentioned at the previous inspection and written in my log book,also bought a HANNS DEVICE I was hit with a number of new US rules which I believe were not even yet applied over there. After some negotiation we overcame the problems remember these are all issues that have been fine on my car for 15 years on many 200-300 mph runs. Finally getting a 3 mile pass allowed on Tue my team and I worked till dark so as to get an early start WED. We arrived on the lake before sunup Wed and then stood in a line till 5pm in the sun with our car. I was due to run with the last 10 of the day but forfeited in exchange for a run next morning on which I dropped a valve and destroyed my engine. If spending all day in the sun to get a run is what its going to be about I am not interested in attending again . I must add as WE had volunteered to do clean up jobs Fri we stayed around and did them ,unlike some who should be punished for their failure to live up to their commitments
John Lynch #2 200mph club #1 300mph club

John, You have just HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD when you commented that "It is no longer fun."
Whilst I have not made the financial commitment that you have made in your racer, I have none the less over the past few years accumulated components that hopefully would have put a bellytank lakester into the 250+ bracket.
Every day I walk into my workshop I look at the Hemi engine, transmission and QC rear end and try to re-motivate myself, the politics negate the effort.

John- first up I am a newbie- only discovered salt racing a few years ago, and only been to 2010 & 2013 meets. I had a few days as a newbie scrut. As I recall, your problems with scruitneering were a plastic seat and wheels which were not fully welded. The plastic seat is pretty bloody obvious- I can understand the wheels, but if you had bothered to read the rulebook, it clearly says "no plastic seats". I have great respect for what .you have achieved in the sport, but you should recognise the lengths that Bob Ellis and Animal went to, to allow you to run, in the circumstances. I just feel that you are taking a cheap shot.
Denis

John has nailed it with our biggest problem, everyone is waiting, not racing. It's not fun. Even a stalwart like Cookey can't muster the enthusiasm to build a car and he already has all the big bits. We need to put a concerted effort into changing the "time-honoured" procedures that are holding us back. I get abuse heaped upon me whenever I mention change but here I go again. Before you (whoever you may be this time) decide to attack me again rather than logically discuss the problem you have to realise that YOU ARE THE PROBLEM. The status quo is not working anymore. What worked well enough years ago for 60 entrants doesn't work for more than 300.

As I stood at the start line during yet another delay I casually mentioned that we should have another track parallel to the main one so we could at least run a short course while we waited for the long course to be repaired. The response I got from the bike racers around me was as if I'd been handing out $100 notes. Everyone wants change and improvement. No active competitor wants to keep things the way they are. Waiting is NOT racing.

If we were starting from scratch and designing our new procedures to be able to provide at least 3 runs a day for 500 competitors, what would you suggest?

I've mentioned a couple of times that we should time the current GPS course with the old timing gear.
We own the gear.
I've offered to lay it out and pick it up.
If we put the timing van next to the start line we would need very few new volunteers or slow the process down as the timer can see who is starting next and the start line volunteers can hand the timer the list of the next vehicles.
Surely we can point the track slightly differently to get another 1/2 a mile and time from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2.
Limit the track to 150.
Those that can get top speed by 1 1/2 will run on the short course all week if they can get an official time.

Before you say "it's a GPS track" have a look at these numbers:
There was 94 driver entrants that ran a time this year, a few multiple driver cars.
52 of those drivers ran over 150mph so 42 of them could run on the GPS track with a 150mph limit on it.

There was 109 rider entrants that ran a time, again with multiple rider bikes, where a rider had multiple bikes I counted them for each bike.
37 of them ran over 175mph, 41 ran over 150mph, only 4 ran over 150 and under 175.
That gives 72 riders that could have run the GPS track the whole meet if it was limited to 150mph to save confusion
A big a$$ sign saying "160mph limited" at the start line so people can run their 150 licences there.

213 entrants that ran a time for 2013; 124 of those could have run the GPS track the whole meet if we had timing gear on it.

We all want to race, we don't go out there for the flys.
Lets use what we have and race.

jon
P.S. sorry for the long post, my thumb is sore now but please consider.

Jon, your point about having the timing van at the start line makes a lot of sense. I know you're talking about the current GPS track, but I think it might make sense for the big course too. Does anyone know if there's a technical reason, or any other reason for that matter, that Cookey's TAG Heuer timing van is not at the long course start line? As you say, it would save a lot of work if the timer was at the start line and save a lot of radio traffic too.

There's a lot more to the old timing gear than simply laying it out and rolling it up.This is why it was shelved after 2010 and we went to the new gear at considerable cost to the club.
The amount of stoppages due to timing gear issues with the old gear was chronic. The club received this gear (used) from the US as it had been replaced there, I can't remember what year off hand. In 2009/10 we almost needed a full time ute and driver out there to keep things going.

I'm sure Cookey or Peter Noy could add their first hand knowledge here.

Most issues with the old gear are wiring faults or dirty sensors.
There is new wire at the DLRA camp.
Dirty sensors can be dealt with most effectively by distancing the lense from the salt.

How the old sensors were set up:

How the new sensors are set up:

How the sensors are set up at one of the other meets:

By only timing a over 1 mile and its first quarter we only need 3 pairs of sensors, we can cherry pick the best of the gear.

Dave - 2 valid reasons I've been told about the positioning of the timing van when i asked are;
Distance from the sensors, if something goes wrong it is much quicker for the timers to get to the gear to troubleshoot it.
Run/chute pull observation.

The other important reason that the Timing Van is on the opposite side of the course and away from everybody is to prevent interruptions from people coming by to get results etc.
The new equipment can be set up by one person if need be and we only need a maximum of 3 people in the timing van when racing.

Well that all makes sense, thanks for the quick responses. Where do people currently get their results from the long/short course? I know what you mean about being pestered by people asking about speeds, my brother had a few people ask about runs that had happened hours before. When told he didn't have that information (he's the starter, he has no need to know) they expected him to radio Cookey and find out .

From memory, the donated equipment was first used here at the 1995 International Speed Challenge when several Americans, including Al Teague, turned up to try our salt. That was 18 years ago!